FRANCIE DIEP …DEC 20, 2017.…"Today, we took an important step to better protect people who choose to take potentially harmful homeopathic drug products," FDA head Scott Gottlieb said during a call for reporters.

Products labeled "homeopathic" are widely available in American drugstores. They include some medicines that are marketed as "natural," as well as less overtly alternative therapies, such as some zinc-based cold remedies. In particular, the FDA plans to more closely scrutinize products it considers high-risk, including anything intended for children, products that claim to treat serious conditions (such as addiction), and products that have received safety complaints. The majority of homeopathic treatments aren’t considered high risk, said Janet Woodcock, who directs drug evaluation at the FDA, during the same call. Those treatments may continue to be sold, under no closer watch than they had been.

While it’s unusual for products not to have to prove themselves effective in order to make health claims, homeopathy has a special exemption in part because the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act—passed in 1938—was sponsored by a congressman who was himself a homeopathic practitioner. New York Senator Royal Copeland, a Democrat, added into the act a provision recognizing the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, a list maintained by trained homeopaths that sets standards for homeopathic ingredients’ quality and purity. An FDA policy dating to 1988 states that over-the-counter remedies made under homeopathic principles don’t have to undergo clinical trials.